Roof boxes are generally used to transport luggage, cargo, or other objects usable to man, by mounting the roof box on the roof of a vehicle, usually via a roof rack. Roof boxes can be manufactured in a wide variety of materials although thermoplastics are the most common material used up to date. One way of manufacturing a roof box is to form mold a base portion and a lid as separate pieces, and thereafter pivotally connect the lid to the base portion to form a closeable confided luggage and storage compartment. As a consequence of the manufacturing method, the stability and strength of the roof box has generally been limited to the stability and strength of the form molded pieces themselves.
Although roof box manufacturers has developed roof boxes which meet high requirements concerning safety, stability and strength, there are situations which cannot be fully anticipated and which impose structural demands to the roof box which are difficult to predict or meet. One such situation is a crash scenario, in which the vehicle crashes or collides with another object. Objects which are not sufficiently secured inside of the roof box, e.g. by using cargo nets or straps or the like, can accidentally be forced through the roof box wall and out to the ambient environment, due to their inherent inertia during a crash or collision. This is especially the case for relatively heavy sports equipment such as skies or snowboards.
The published document DE 202008000734U1 disclose a roof box with an absorbing member adapted to absorbed the kinetic energy which an object has during a crash, to prevent the object from escaping or damaging the roof box. The absorbing member has a bow shaped form and is attached to the side walls of the base portion using screws. The solution is however not very efficiently dispersing the absorbed kinetic energy into the base portion as might be wanted.